Information services provided by" Library Liaison " at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University: Case Study

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Suez Canal University - Faculty of Arts and Humanities Library and Information Department

Abstract

The concept of the" librarian" has evolved to become " Library Liaison ",
whose role changed from Library resources developer to supporter the users,
becoming a "knowledge go-between" who works with the faculty staff to support
students’ learning, an actual and active member of the Learning and Research
Support Team in the academic departments. Having valuable skills in finding
learning resources, helping students acquire information searching skills,
Developing, and evaluating resources, supporting online activities, and
supervising research projects for faculty members and students.
In this context, this research aims to study the services of " Library Liaison
"at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia to identify his new
functions and services, to be carried out, the mechanisms of communication with
the faculty members of the university, and the faculty points of view about the
most vital communication activities that would ultimately improve the library
services provided to them.
The researcher used the descriptive analysis method to study the services
of " Library Liaison "and their most important activities that should be provided to
faculty members and researchers inside and outside the academic library at
Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University, describing these activities qualitatively
and quantitatively. The research community consisted of the faculty members
and research students from the faculties of Arts, Education and Science- as the
scope of the researcher's work- And it was carried out in the academic year
2016/2017. The total number (324) users, who responded to the search
instrument correctly (in electronic form and printed), of (116) faculty members
and research students; 35.8% from users.
The results of the study revealed that the research community holds the
opinion that the services to be provided by the liaison are of great importance in
the following fields: collections Development for the academic departments,
providing reference services and specialized research services, providing Library
instruction services with the academic departments, providing scholar
communication services, and finally providing education and training services. all these responses are very high, which reflects the importance of these activities
and services provided by the liaison to faculty members and researchers. This
study can be considered as a guide to help the liaison at the University of Imam
Abdul Rahman bin Faisal in identifying the most important activities they should
implement to improve the services of the academic library in the university.
Finally, the researcher concluded with a set of recommendations and
suggestions based on the results of the research.



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